Background The potential impact of climate change and of uncontrolled economic development has led to water scarcity becoming a major global issue. The issue is especially serious for islands located in the Mediterranean Sea, such as Malta. Awareness-raising on key topics (e.g. climate change, EU water policy, desalination techniques and best practice solutions) could play a major role in facilitating the adoption of new strategies and tools that aim to save water and reduce water consumption. Objectives The main objective of the ‘Investing in Water’ project was to achieve behavioural changes that will lead to increased adoption of best practices for water conservation during the project lifetime among the target economic sectors. The project aimed to raise awareness on issues related to water scarcity in Malta and the importance of water conservation among the target economic sectors. These sectors would serve as an example to other sectors to adopt similar measures thereby helping reduce pressure on groundwater resources and contributing towards Malta’s EU obligation to achieve good status under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The project planned to carry out a two-and-a-half-year awareness-raising campaign focusing on: Malta’s obligations under the WFD; Water scarcity (over-extraction of groundwater); The economic and environmental cost (i.e. carbon footprint) of producing water from desalination plants; The potential impact of anticipated climate change scenarios on Malta’s groundwater; and Best practices for companies to reduce their water consumption, especially the ‘service water’ consumed by the business community. Two main groups would be targeted: 186 general businesses employing over 23 000 people in total; and 72 hotels, employing some 6 500 people in total. The awareness-raising campaign was designed mainly using business-to-business communications tools. It would disseminate the key project messages by first raising awareness of the environmental problem and then disseminating information about the solutions to key decision-makers (owners, managers, employees and tourists). Results Through a series of information campaigns and audits, the project demonstrated that target stakeholders can contribute to the reduction of water (and energy) consumption in Malta. The project’s strategy focused on direct contact with enterprises as a means of gathering information, identifying water-saving opportunities and encouraging their adoption. To further build a drive towards water saving by industry, media and communications work was used on an ongoing basis throughout the project. The strategy was to identify a good contact person with enterprises, carry out media work effectively and react quickly to developments. Furthermore, the focus was on maintaining a good working relationship with stakeholders including government. The ‘best practice’ demonstrated was thus the importance of maintaining contact with key enterprises and stakeholders. It was shown to be vital to provide relevant information on a regular basis to the right person and check on progress, offering support without imposing on the contact. This approach can be applied to other projects to increase its effectiveness and reach. A major outcome of the project was the identification of the most attractive and widely transferable water saving best practice solutions available on the local market. A set of water audits was carried out for the pilot group of businesses and hotels at the start of the project. The various solutions already implemented were evaluated in terms of investment required, return on investment period offered, transferability across industry, effectiveness and operational feasibility. These best practices were widely disseminated to target audiences and stakeholder groups through face-to-face meetings and via the production of print and electronic materials. A list of providers of these best practice solutions was also drawn up to further facilitate sourcing and implementation. The project, moreover, helped implement these best practice solutions. A total of 14 of the 136 businesses and hotels, which completed a project water audit, adopted water saving best practice. This led to a reduction in water consumption of an estimated 96 197 m3 per year, representing 14% of the consumption of the audited enterprises. An additional two enterprises adopted recommendations on their own initiative, leading to total savings of 145 047 m3 per year. Finally, based on the most extensive data available nationally on water consumption by industry, the project was able to draw up policy recommendations. As industry representatives, the project partners enjoy a high level of trust among enterprises, allowing them to collect data on water consumption that was not previously available nationally. (Multiple water sources are consumed by industry, many of which are not accounted for by national authorities or regulators, such as in-house produced reverse-osmosis water, treated waste-water, bowser purchased groundwater and rainwater.) Coupled with a thorough understanding of the water-saving technologies available on the market, and the factors affecting an enterprise's decision to invest in water savings, the project presented a set of recommendations to the Maltese government for consideration in the National Water Action Plan and the Greening the Economy Strategy, both developed in 2014, as well as to the European Commission for the upcoming 2015 Water Framework Directive Review. The project website provides details of the water-saving solutions and includes an online self-assessment tool which enterprises can use to identify water saving best practice opportunities. The recommendations made by the project are also available on the website. Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).